illustrated journal

Archive for March, 2010

By clicking on the tags from my latest post, some of you may have noticed that there are regrettably few blog posts about the hermit lifestyle. I am proud to have found my niche, and will try my best to live up to it. Thanks to having moved back to my parents’ house in a charming village, I know I will have much to contribute to the trend I intend to set. For those who choose to follow me, here is step one: walk in the fresh night air with a Moleskine sketchbook and a pencil until you find a beautiful tree. Then draw it as well as you can, though of course you won’t be able to see the lines on the page. And then, ask yourself, isn’t this what life is like? Hopefully, there will some coherence to your drawing in the end.

What can I write about when I live on my own, go days without seeing or talking to anyone, and spend much of my time agonizing over the same PhD proposal I was already working on a year ago? As a precocious hermit, all I can do is talk about the candles I like to light at night in the depths of my cave. It’s not that I cannot afford the electricity bill anymore – though of course every little helps – rather, I am a little ashamed to admit that as I’ve got used to going to bed very early (I refuse to say how early), I tend to wake up during the night, usually at 1 or 2 am. At first I tried to force myself back to sleep by beating myself up over it, which strangely enough didn’t work very well. Then I tried candles, and nights became more enjoyable. And yes, I will be careful not to burn down the house…